WOODLAND — Yolo County supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a 2012-13 budget that features $337 million in total spending and the elimination of nearly 60 vacant positions but no layoffs.

The approved budget contains only minor changes from the recommended budget approved by the board in June.

The only real disagreement on Tuesday came over County Assessor Joel Butler’s request to fill two currently vacant positions in his department, which the county administrator had recommended leaving open pending a review of the department, expected to be completed in about two months.

But Butler said waiting two months would make the department’s job very difficult during a period when so many homeowners in Yolo County are requesting reappraisals due to declining property values.

“Basically,” he said, “it’s arithmetic.”

Back in 2007, Butler explained, he had 30 staff members.

He’s now down to 25, but with furloughs, he said, it amounts to 23 full-time-equivalent employees.

With the increase in demands for reappraisals, Butler said, that leaves his staff with a workload that allows for just four minutes to appraise each house.

Staffers hired in two months, he added, would be of little use going into the height of tax season.

Supervisor Don Saylor of Davis expressed support for Butler’s request, saying, “I’m willing to allow two positions to come into this department … while we review business processes.

“(They’re) down two staff, workload is higher than it was (in 2007). In fairness to the taxpayers of Yolo County,” Saylor said, the positions should be filled.

County Administrator Patrick Blacklock said his office recommended waiting for the conclusion of the review, which the board had requested earlier this year, before filling the positions. Blacklock added that an alternative would be to fill one of the positions for now.

That position was favored by the board in 3-2 vote, with Supervisors Jim Provenza and Duane Chamberlain joining Saylor in voting to fill one appraiser position.

All five supervisors then voted in favor of the budget itself, which Blacklock described as balanced for now, but with unknown risks on the horizon.

Those include the governor’s sales tax measure on the November ballot — failure of which could impact county revenues midyear — as well as uncertainties with the economy.

“We’re also in the middle of labor negotiations,” he said, “so that is another variable out there.”

Agreement has been reached on most labor contracts to obtain long-term sustainable cost reductions, his office reported, but there remain four bargaining unit contracts that expire this year.

The 2012-13 budget is about $15 million less than the budget of 2008-09, when the recession started. Since then, county staff has been reduced by 30 percent.

Blacklock said in June that the number of county employees per 1,000 residents (6.4) is the lowest in more than 20 years, and continues to impact staff’s ability to meet service demands.

Another concern, he said Tuesday, is that “we are reaching a critical point in some departments in terms of having adequate staff.”

“There were points this year when we thought we didn’t have (enough employees for succession),” he said, “so that is going to be a focus area for us in the coming year.”

— Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at [email protected] or 530-747-8051. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy

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